Teaching for strategies requires setting children up to generate strategies, then reviewing with them, in an agentive retelling, the effectiveness of the strategies they generated, as in, “You figured out that tricky word by yourself. How did you do that?” (Johnston 31)
I really enjoyed this chapter because it really focused on helping the child in such a positive way that makes them want to continue to learn. Johnston talks a lot about strategies used to help the students learn in a positive learning environment. When a child hears the teacher say “You figured out that tricky word by yourself”, it makes the student want to jump up and begin explaining to you how they got the answer.
I had been tutoring this little boy who was in first grade and he had been having a really difficult time in class. I learned that it was because his parents had only really been focusing on the wrong the boy was doing in his homework and not encouraging him with the right he was doing. This really affected the boy in a sense that his parents would just end up giving his the answers, so he was never able to explain how he got the answer he did. The teacher and I tried to help build the boys confidence by making a big deal when he answered questions correctly. We allowed the boy to answer all the questions on his own with minimal help from me. After I saw that the answer was correct I would go on by asking him how he got the answer. Soon he became so excited to want to tell me how he got the answers to all the questions. This really helped him focus more in class to because he wanted to continue o explaining things to me.
natashak89 
Hi Natasha,
I love how you incorporated what we’re learning into a scenario that you went through with the little boy. I like how Johnston pointed out that we should start with the positive, and focus on the parts of the answer that are done well. Sometimes teachers get too focused on the only part of the answer that is wrong. I teach piano, which is not the same as teaching writing of course, but I find myself only focusing on the slip-ups that kids make. To counteract this, I try to focus on all the wonderful things that my students do right, just like you celebrated all the correct answers that the little boy got.
Thanks for sharing!
Like Cami, I appreciate the real world experience you share. It’s a touching story about the little boy. It fits perfectly.
Golden lines: “After I saw that the answer was correct I would go on by asking him how he got the answer. Soon he became so excited to want to tell me how he got the answers to all the questions. This really helped him focus more in class to because he wanted to continue explaining things to me.”
A learning victory.